Exertis appoints industry veteran as head of mobile division
Ferguson spent three years at Brightstar and eight years with Vodafone
Distributors - Manny Pham
May 25, 2017
MD O’Keeffe looks to deals with HMD Global and Sky Mobile following “fairly flat year” in division
Exertis claims new partnerships with the likes of HMD Global and Sky Mobile can help its mobile division return to growth after seeing flat yearly revenues of £288 million.
The Basingstoke-based distributor released its end of year financials for the three months ending March 31 last week (May 16). Its total revenues across the 12-month period grew from £2.4 billion to £2.6 billion, while operating profit in the same period rose from £35.1 million to £41.1 million.
Distribution agreements
Growth was partly attributed to its £38 million purchase of IT specialist Hammer Holdings, which added £155 million in turnover. Expenditure on acquisitions over the year totalled more than £64.2 million.
These latest financials come after the business signed distribution agreements with the likes of HMD Global and O2 MVNO Sky Mobile in recent months. Last year also saw it sign an exclusive reverse logistics agreement with Irish operator eir Mobile, which sees more than 100,000 devices process yearly.
Growth opportunities
Exertis managing director Gerry O’Keeffe attributed the fairly flat figures in mobile to consolidation in the market. “We’ve seen very good performance out of the UK business with strong activity in the areas of audio visual, print, smart technology and gaming,” he told Mobile News.
“We had a fairly flat year in mobile. We’re not an Apple distributor and there’s been a consolidation in the market between Samsung and Apple. There was less room for other players. Another major impact was with Microsoft discontinuing its Lumia range last year where we had 95 per cent of the business in distribution.
“There’s great growth opportunities for us in the year ahead, however. Nokia has come back through HMD and they’ll breath new life into the feature phone market. Then there’s the Samsung Galaxy S8 alongside new LG and Sony products. The work we’re doing with Sky Mobile should also help us pick up growth again as well.”
